Suzhou and Tongli

IF anyone were coming to Suzhou, I'd highly recommend going to Tiger Hill in the North West of town. A much more appealing and varied garden would await them there than at the Humble Administrator's Garden, for 10 Yuan less. Although the food had beforehand was not too hot and vastly overpriced, and despite the dozens of wedding shops surrounding the entrance, the garden and hill (artificial) itself was beautiful, and much quieter than the Humble Administrator's.

I would also recommend going to Tongli, a beautiful town set among extensive waterways and winding streets. Although of course there was a lot of tourist crap there, and the food was overpriced, it was nice to see the sweets you find in these parts being made, and most of the town was fairly quiet and hassle free. The Sex Museum might not appeal to all those who visit Tongli...but I rather enjoyed it. The dirth of large penises aside, the buildings housed some interesting exhibits (some exhibitionists, or rather, pieces about them), and had some interesting texts about sex in China – although these were sometimes somewhat short, this might be a blessing given the sometimes dubious translations.

In short, the town is beautiful in itself. Although famous for its gardens, I really can't afford to pay 80 yuan to get into each of them, nor do I have time - and I suspect it isn't necessary given I've had a very nice time wandering around the streets, and going to the few things I have seen.

Last night bought the first food problem of the holiday (not bad going for 6 weeks in). Ordering from an English card in a semi-chain restaurant place I think I pointed at the chinese above what we wanted rather than below. We got a VERY spicy beef noodle soup, some 'corn bread and mashed potato' things which were pretty vile and goey (but I think I actually meant to order them), and some white sliced vegetable like a very mild radish, which was warm and also horrible. Fortunately we'd paid after ordering...so we made a runner, barely touching the food. Instead we went to this great place called 7 + 7, a cafeteria type place where you just select the dishes you want from the counter and pay when you sit down. Although a lot of the food was cold (always a problem with this kind of place) it was mostly delicious, and by that time quality wasn't so much wanted as just something edible.

Anyway, I bought some tea today. I don't remember what kind which is a touch unfortunate as I may not be able to buy more, but I'm going to go drink some of that now, and then hopefully find some fried dumplings. Moving to Nanjing tomorrow, so the next post should be on that!

Hangzhou and Suzhou

After the bustle of Shanghai, and difficulty with going out to bars there other than the hostel I headed to Hangzhou with some hope of a relaxing experience and some drinks outside of the hostel. This proved to be necessary as, although owned by the same group, this hostel was in contrast to the Shanghai Ming Town, dead in the evenings. However, I had some drinks with people on my birthday (some of whom were English guys working in Suzhou as teachers), and enjoyed walking around the city. Although some of the sights in Hangzhou were very nice, and very easy to get to by public transport, some were grossly overpriced - it is obvious that there are a lot of Chinese tourists here, and a lot of them have a lot of money. 40 Yuan ($6.60ish) is a lot to go up one pagoda. However, on the other side of the lake (over an artificial causeway - very nice to walk over), up a hill, there was located a very beautiful monastery with fantastic views over the city through the recently cleared sky all for only 5 yuan (less than $1).

After a full day sightseeing in Hangzhou it was time to move on to Suzhou - that or die of boredom probably, beautiful place though it was. Jumping on the bus to the bustation to find it going in the wrong direction was a bit disheartening. It taking 1.5 hours (only 20 mins being in the wrong way) to get there was even more so. Getting off the bus to have not a clue where the damn station was was even more so. Finding it was good. It was amusing to see that even Chinese people were looking around wondering where the hell they needed to go to get to the bus station. It seems the city wants to set itself up to encourage people to go with the mini-bus touts who stand around the public bus stop.

For 70 yuan (outrageous price) a 2 hour coach journey got me to Suzhou. A brief taxi ride to the hostel and I was settled in in really quite beautiful surroundings, not only the roads outside (with a canal and restored buildings) but also the hostel itself (also a restored building). Thus far walking around Suzhou has been very nice, and relaxed if a bit odd as a result of appearing quite European with its coffee shops, tea houses, cake stores, river side restaurants and umbrella covered dining tables. Although the 'Garden of the Humble Administrator' [Suzhou is famous for its gardens] was very nice, it was a touch small for the price (70 yuan) and a bit busy, including a large number of tour groups led by microphone wearing guides...I'd happily have thrown them into the artificial ponds. Tonight I'll head to the night market in Suzhou for some cheap (and no doubt delicious) eats. Tomorrow I think I'm going to Tongil to visit the canals and Chinese sex museum - I'm told a much better experience than the one in Shanghai. After one more day in Suzhou I'll hopefully leave for Nanjing, and then on toward Jinan from there - although I've recently discovered that a public holiday canceling all the trains may cause issues with this...damn. Off to sort that out now.

Shanghai

`So, having got rid of the chicken's feet and duck's neck portions onto a chef/catering manager (who I'm told works with Anthony Worral Thompson) today I went out to take a look round the 'old town' and yet again attempt to buy a second hand book. Arriving back at the hostel soaking and with a new book (Peter Carey's Theft which I'm quite happy with) clearly my plan did not entirely work out, and I did spend a reasonable amount of time, yet again, walking in circles. But never mind. The old town was very nice - although a bit fake, reminding me somewhat of the 'shopping villages' built for outlet stores in the uk...only with more hawkers selling watches more antiques and more 'antiques'.

Thus far the food here has been very nice (and much cheaper than HK), although I was forced to eat my first ever Big Whopper yesterday as I couldn't find any food where I was, I was starving and needed to take my doxycycline with food. I'm not proud, but I did enjoy it. This meal was of course trumped by my evening meal the night before of noodles with garlic, ginger, and chilli with lamb. Delicious and only for 12 Yuan (just less than a pound) for a big plate.

The meal was made more amusing by the fact that it was eaten with a pimp. I'll just repeat that, it was eaten with a pimp. Walking along one of the main streets here foreigners often experience people saying 'hello' 'where you from' 'you go for coffee with me?' and so on. Finding this somewhat confusing (particularly at first) I wasn't sure whether these people were:
1) setting me up to rob me
2) flirting
3) genuinly trying to practice their english
4) trying to sell me things [watches, belts, shoes - they offer them all in one sentece]
5) Trying to sell me sex

Generally I walk faster than them and don't respond to them, so I have no problem. Unfortunately this bloke was tall and could walk as fast as my flip flopped feet could carry me, and I made the mistake of engaging him. So he guided me (subtly) to a 'cafe' to eat. I wasn't keen on eating in a cafe, particularly having seen two large Western blokes also being guided in by another Asian guy. It was at this point that I decided he wasn't flirting, he wasn't going to rob me, and he didn't care much about his english (which was good), but he did want me in his brothel. So, not wanting to let me go, he suggested a place further down which looked (and was) very nice. So in we went, him sitting with me while I ate, chatting, and occasionally suggesting I could get a massage - 'nice student girls, they want to practice their english'. Yuhuh. Anywho, he wasn't too happy when I left saying I needed to go meet my friends. Playing innocent I pointed out that he'd told me he just wanted to practice his english...he did not understand my laughter. Teach him to walk so fast. I was told later that this is a standard trick to do all 5 of the above (less the 3rd, and the 4th is obvious of course), and that plenty of people find themselves engaged only to then be robbed either obviously, or through various 'tea house scams' where they're pushed into paying exorbitant amounts for tea in a tea house under the guise of going out to tea with their new Chinese friend...classic scam and yet, as with the Tailors and Stone sellers of Bangkok with the tuk-tuk drivers, people still fall for it all the time.

Having seen a reasonable amount of Shanghai, I've decided tomorrow will be my last day. and I'll go to Hangzhou the day after for 2 days there, before heading back North to Suzhou, then Nanjing before a big jump up to Ji'nan. More on those soon I should think. I'm hoping I can see some more 'natural beauty' - lakes and hills and such while there. The temples here are nice, but not a patch on Thai/Cambodian ones partly because those included so much nature, even if it was just nice gardens, whereas the ones here do not. We'll see what happens further North.

HK to Shanghai

Having made the decision that the laptop light is preferable to the reading light in my darkened cabin I'm writing this 4.5 hours in to my 21 hour train journey from Hong Kong to Shanghai. Having eaten a snack of a pack of pringle-esque crisps and had two beers for dinner 30 mins ago and that 4.5 hours being 4.5 from 3.15pm I'm in little mood for the 'bedtime' the family inhabiting my cabin seem to have initiated. (That's 7.45pm for the non-mathematical btw). Although, my experience of the train Chiang Mai to Bangkok rather prepared me for this event, I was rather enjoying my Ben Elton novel. Nae mind.

Having spent my last 3 days in HK largely doing non-city things, I have enjoyed HK rather more. Yesterday I went up the 'gravity defying' (Lonely Planet phrase, I entirely agree with) tram to Victoria Peak, overlooking HK. Well worth the trip for the journey itself – it feels like you're going to go vertical at some points – the views (hazy though they were), and for the newly purchased mah jong set; what any nearing mid-twenties man wants. Also for the full range of punctuation a sentence about it offered.

I've largely subsisted on western food in HK, a hotpot with Vicky (a Leeds friend) and some of her friends, some japanese food (quite Western really), and that's about it for exceptions. The hotpot was a nice experience in that the beer was cheap (21 HK dollars for 3 bottles – that's about 50p each), and it's a social occasion. The food consists of as much meat, veg, fish, fish balls, etc. as you want, and two pots of soup with heaters underneath in which to cook this food – the ultimate food poisoning get out clause for a restaurant. The meal was notably lacking in veg., and not being a fan of fish (or tripe) was a problem, but as I say, socially it was very nice. The reasons for this Westernism are:
1)I'll eat Chinese in China with little other choice
2)nausea at the end of Thailand time led me away from rice, and especially lemon grass (which I love, but the smell of which was making me nauseas)
3)there was no price difference between Western and Asian food (lunch time deals are especially good)
4)There are a lot of cafes with Western food, good coffee and free internet – sold me.

So far this train is more 'luxurious' than the Thai equivalent, although in some ways I preferred that one. This has a dinning cart (bonus), and very nice toilets, and a separate sink area. The beds are divided into sets of 4 (soft sleeper) or 6 (hard sleeper) in cabins. I am on a top bunk in soft sleeper – about 40 pound for the journey. The Thai ones were an ingenious use of space, but these are more Western, and have less noise transmission and so on.

The people I'm sharing a room with seem very nice, with limited English. They're from HK, visiting the man's (2 women, 1 man) brother. I'm unsure of their relation, but I've talked to him a bit, and one of the women gave me some food. The packet of chestnuts was a nice thing to give me, and much appreciated...the shrink wrapped (in foil) chicken liver, and chicken feet...well, how do you react to that? I think I may need to hide them by the morning.

[I did indeed hide them. And I am now in Shanghai in what appears to be quite a nice hostel...more on Shanghai later]

Hong Kong

So, despite having free internet in Pacific Coffee I haven't had a chance for long time internet in a while. However, I have now bought a mini laptop (10 inch screen or something, so 11 by 7 inch size, less than 1kg...roughly) for less than $400 (US). The Lonely Planet description says “If Hong Kong was a person, she'd be a difficult woman to understand.” Now, aside from that analogy making me want to punch the author in the face, I can actually see their meaning.

On one hand, Hong Kong is a bizzare shopping experience, with huge amounts of technology shops and clothes shops, malls all over the place and so on. These malls come in two forms – the kind like the malls we have at home – a shopping centre, with a grand entrance and anchor stores – although often with the addition of a Karaoke floor or perhaps a floor devoted to arcade games. The other kind seem to often have entrances at the ground floor, but no shops there, these instead being above. In fact, as is natural in a place where most building must be upward as opposed to onto surround land, many shops and services seem to require you to ascend into buildings seemingly filled with a combination of offices (not open to public), flats, and the places you're seeking.

In another sense, HK has historic areas, and temples in various places – although I have to say these are (in my experience) nowhere near as impressive as those in Bangkok. And again, HK has a huge amount of natural scenes – mountains, beaches, forest areas and so on. In short, I'm not sure whether I'm attracted to her or not.

After two days of shopping and being in the centre I was very ready to head out to one of the national parks today (Sunday). Although we didn't quite manage the boat tour around the coast I was hoping we'd be able to do, it was very pleasant to be out of the city, and incredibly easy to get there too. The beach itself was also beautiful although the heat was oppressive (and tiring) and the lack of swimming costume disappointing.

Today, I went to Lantau, an island next to Central and twice the size but much less built up (particularly if you ignore the international airport and Disney Land). My intention had been to do a proper walk – indeed I even bought a map for such purposes – however, although the ascent to the monastry and big Buddah could be completed by cable car (and indeed was), I wasn't sure how I could do the rest to minimise the walking while maximising the views, which I needed to do to avoid the heat. As it happened, what I did was miss the stop I'd thought of getting off at and stayed on the bus from the peak right the way to the ferry port and bumed around on the beach for a couple of hours – given the heat I have to say this was a much more sensible option, although it is a pity I didn't do any of the walk I'd planned as Lantau looks fantastic and it would have been nice to take a walk.

I'm staying in ChunKing Mansions...Mansions they ain't. This is a dilapidated set of blocks of flats/businesses. There is just enough room for a bed and bedside table, and for the door to the room to open, and give access to the ensuite. It's clean (and cleaned every day in fact), and has a TV and phone (free for HK calls including mobiles – useful for contacting vicky) but a bit depressing as there's no social area or anything like that. The annoyance at the 1 lift going to the odd floors (3,5,7,9,11,13,15) constantly being full to capacity is outweighed by my amusement at watching middle aged middle class couples walking in and out of the building obviously much more uncomfortable than me. Small pleasures. Anyway, it is partly for this accommodation that I'm looking forward to heading on to Shanghai (although less so the 25 hour journey there by myself).

Anyway, I should be able to get some more photos up now they're all on the laptop (as soon as I can find my superuser password to install picassa)

Macau

So having arrived at the airport safely - 4.5 hours early in fact - and drunk our last baht away in the cafe, Kirsty left to go back to England, a job and being cold for a few weeks while she gets used to the weather again, and I left for Macau - where I now am. Despite what I'd been told I quite like it here. Although it was a bit concerning when the plane was taxiing (spelling?) up to the airport and all I could see was water out of one side, it really does seem like an attractive - if polluted - place. Furthermore, it's not all that full of casinos other than on the water front where there is something of a sense that there might be a slot machine element to the parking meters. My room is very nice - although more expensive than I'd hoped for; I suspect the olympics are to blame. In my afternoon here, other than just taking a bit of a stroll (after a much needed shower) I've walked up to the ruins of a church (much better that way, and lovely views too), and from there a short bit further up to a fort, with yet more good views. I tried to eat at a nice Italian place recommended in the guide - but alas it was being renovated..so I went to pizza hut instead; my stomach needs a break from rice.

Tomorrow I'll leave for HK via ferry for maybe 6 nights, possibly includingi a night or two on Lantau (one of the islands), and certainly some of my day plans are to see some beaches and mountains (as well as getting a visa and booking my train to Shanghai [25 hour journey]). While there I will also see Vicky which should be nice. Anyway, I have applying to be a teacher things to do. Will update more from HK.

Things wot we did in Chiang Mai

I'm aware that some of my posts have been very much 'this is where we are and this is how we got here' in content. This is partly because those are some of the most memorable moments, and in some ways most interesting to read (who needs to know when I had a particularly nice/bad cup of coffee? Incidently, I've had both in Chiang Mai - fantastic local coffee, and nescafe).

However, it struck me that we spent a week in Chiang Mai - surely someone must be wondering what the hell we were doing [other than using the pool on our last day]? In short, other than the activity filled day, not a lot really. We did a walking tour of the city, going to all the 'must see' wats, and took a taxi out to doi suthep (a wat on a hill) and out to the one in the forest ( name escapes me), we also went to the night bazaar (market) twice, and the sunday walking street once (for obvious reasons). We ate well, and explored the city...we also had two Thai massages. These might be of some note as I can imagine people having had bad, or good experiences of these. My suspicion is that depends on the masseur (and the day, and how achey you are anyway, etc.) but I'm sure some people's views are tainted. In my opinion they're quite a nice experience. The first one was at a place round the corner from ou first guesthouse, in a very nice room with dimmed light, and raised beds. They get you to put on fisherman pants (loose fitting trousers) and give you free tea (iced thai tea in this case...imagine tea with icing sugarr and ice in and that gives you a fair idea of it) and there was meditation style music playing (although, at the second place this was interupted at one point bizzarely by Leann (is it pretentious to put [sic] next to what a parent has called their child?) Rimes. Although at certain points they press too hard - I do after all have a lot of tendons with little fat covering them on my forearm, and pushing will feel a touch unpleasant, and despite my thought at one point of 'hmm, if her elbow slips now I'm going home without my testicles' I can say it was a very nice experience.

Of the second one I can generally report the same. Carried out/done by a man who looked to be recently out of the monastry it was harder than the first one, and included some different stretches but was generally a very pleasant experience. Perhaps importantly - depending on which moral you wish to take from this story - no fear was induced for my testicles this time, althouhg there was one stretch where I was leaning in to his lap and somewhat feared for his. Oh the life of a masseuse.

Now I'll update the previous post about the journey :p.

Airport

So! Last night we caught the train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. In Chiang Mai we'd had to move from one guesthouse (Julie's, about $7 a night) to Supreme (the same but not as social, BUT with a large DVD collection, including Envy with Jack Black inventing va-poo-rize [you can guess its function] - it is not a good film), and then for our last night to SK's at $13ish a night BUT with a large swimming pool. After days of fantastic thai food and good markets we decided on our last day to take it a bit easy, go out to a forest wat and eat western food (at least for brunch).

HEALTH UPDATE - all fine, doxycycline still having no side effects, and no dengue fever (woot woot).

Our train was at 6pm so after an early dinner (4ish) we headed out to the station. The train was on time so we boarded straight away and found our set of 4 seats. At night these are folded together to create a (large but shortish) single bed at the bottom, and a narrow single bed is lowered from the wall above. Along these beds curtains are placed to give some privacy (because there are no berths as such) and to block light. This was more effective for the lower bunk (mine) than teh upper (kirsty's) so I had a fantastic 6 or 7 hours sleep...kirsty did not. Many Thai's seemed to put their bunks down (or have them expertly put down by a nice woman sitting at the end of the carriage) very early (from 7.30 on really). We waited till 9.30 before doing so. Arriving one hour late at 8am (not much shorter than the bus but MUCH more comfortable) we decided to head to Silom - our recent local street - for breakfast. This proved an expensive move but nevermind - the French pastries were delicious.

Heading back to the train station after lunch we caught a taxi to where we wanted to stay - or at least we tried to. There was some confusion over where we wanted to go. And I may have pissed off the tuktuk drivers when I laughed long and hard at a quote of 600 baht (10 pound) to get there - this would be enough to go about 40km or something...I think to Ayuthia anyway, cheeky fuck. We got a taxi with some assistance from the Railyway Police. Nice guy took us out on the road this place was off, and headed too far up it, so we had to loop back (expressway, so that meant taking a turn off) to get back to our soi - which it then turned out didn't exist. Drove to another place - no hotel. Woman there suggested some other place which she claimed was nicknamed 54 hotel (we wanted 54 hostel). We decided to give it a go and were a bit concerened to see a semi-posh looking hotel, and pondering sleeping at the airport instead (as the taxi was at 250 already and cash running v. low - so low that today we only just had enough to get to the airport). Fortunately I have a credit card and the hotel had rooms for 600baht (about 10 pound) which we thouht quite acceptable, especially as we'd get a nice room and nice shower. A day with a lot of faff in anyway...

Bngkok to Chiang Mai

I won't mention owt about Ayuthia - we had a very nice time there, but I think the photos will do (When I get those up).  From there we caught a bus at 8 ('turn up at 7.30 please' bus actually scheduled for 8.30, arrived at 9) to Chiang Mai because the train lines were down as a result of protests in Bangkok.  This wasl es than ideal but at least cheap at 500 baht.  At about 1am we stopped for a break - and to use the loo (although there wa sone on the bus it didn't have running water, so there was a big tank of water next to it to flush it with, and the door didn't close so you had to hold it shut). Another hour of fast driving on and the bus started t o stutter - not a good sign.  From 2am until when we eventually arrived in Chiang Mai at 10.30 (supposed to be 7.30) the bus was going at most at 2mph.  The last 80km was done in taxis.  On our eventual arrival we caught a tuktuk from the guesthouse the taxi had dumped us at to Julie's guesthouse (recommended by lonely planet) and managed to check in.  VEry nice place, only a fan but that's all you need, and 220 baht ($7ish) for the room.  Night market here is fantastic - and as we're slightly worried about money (don't want to get more baht) as we overspent on some meals (lonely planet lied about cost of a dish) we imagine we'll eat there some more from now on!

Yesterday we went on a 1 day trek for 1100 baht (almost $40) which was expensive but included a trek to waterfall (verrryyy nice) to swim in (nicer), an elephant ride (surprisingly fun), white water rafting (too short but very good), and bamboo rafting (bamboo canes tied together...these do not take our weight well and the raft was near the river bed at some points with our knees below water standing up, but never mind.  The low point was a trip to a 'mountain village' which was the most pointless 'hey, you go spend money on these tourist stalls' trip ever.  The village didn't even have a good view really!  So, now we have a few more days in Chiang Mai in which to relax, maybe have a Thai Massage, buy our last bits at the markets before heading (by train this time) back to BAngkok for our flights.

Cambodia and back into Thailand

Much to my annoyance, a long blog I wrote yesterday seems to have been deleted.  I'll try and replace that at some point.  First, something I'd forgotten from before:

We had a fish massage in Siem Reap.  This involves putting your feet in a pool of water with fish in.  These fish then make a meal of the dead skin on your feet.  This obviously creates a very odd sensation - but is quite nice (if tickly) and made my feet slightly less gross.

So, after a pleasant if somewhat hassled time in Siem Reap, we were happy to move on to a small place north of there called Kompong Chnang ($6 bus ride).  We were slightly concverned we'd not know where to get off as the bus goes to Battambang eventually, but the guide highlighted some landmarks so we managed to find the right stop.  Landmarks might be a bit of an overstatement there - there was an independence monument...andf it was the only place we'd stopped that was 'town like' thus far, so we figured it was our stop.  The main attractions of Kompoing Chnang are that it is not Siem Reap...and it has potteries and a river to the North East.  For us another attraction was staying in a nicer guesthouse than we had in Siem Reap for the same price.  This place had functional a/c (the other did not), a nice bed (the other was foam with stained, poorly fitting sheets) and no mosquitos in the room (you guessed it, the other did).  The disadvantages of the place were 1) the electricity cut out a fair few times - leaving us rather hot in our rooms (and without cold beer!) and in the dark 2)the only 'restaurants' in town were not very nice dull places, although cheap.  We walked out to the river on our full day there, which was a very pleasant walk despite giving us the only hassling (you want ferry ride?  We take you, nice ride you see floating village) of our time there and despite the incredible heat (walking in to a restaurant two S.African blokes said 'you hot then' - it was only then I noticed my rather wet t-shirt.

From Kompong Chnang we went to Battambang - closer to the Thai border.  We were staying at the Royal hotel, and were somewhat surprised to find a cheap tuktuk affiliated with the Royal to take us there - normally these are the reserve of crap hotels trying to pull in trade.  For $10 a night we got a nice a/c ensuite room in this hotel complete with roof bar in central Battambang.  On our second day there we took a tour with a tuk tuk ($20 between 3 of us).  We decided to get a guide ($12 for him and moto, $10 for just him - we made a mistake there, especially given later he took Morritz (German guy we went with) to a spice shop and almost certainly took commission for the trip).  Anyawy, we had a very nice day going up a mountain to a Wat, and some caves known as 'killing caves' - used by the Khmer Rouge to kill people in by various means.  There are stil some bones there, although many have been removed and cremated as Buddhism requires.  The only other thing of note in Battambang was The Smokin' Pot restaurant which gave us $4 Amok (curry) with drinks - so cheap (and good) we felt compelled to buy their cookbook - which I will use when i get home.

After 3 nights in Battambang we had to catch a taxi to Poipet - Rough guides, again being rough, told us we could get a 3hr $3 bus in the morning.  This bus in fact left at 11.30 - meaning we'd have arrived in Bangkok about 8pm or there abouts.  So with Lucy (French girl we met there) we caught a taxi for $30 - a reasonable price judging from the signs up for shared taxis in Khmer, with prices set at about that for the whole taxi - lthough in those, there would be 7 people including the driver - tight fit!  We arrived at the border in 2 hours - the road was much improved in \the 23 weeks since we'd been there last, with the mud removed and much more tarmac than previously.  We sailed through both sets of immigration lines, jumped on a tuktuk, to the bus station, and then straight on to a 1st class bus to Bangkok.  On arrival there (5 hours later) we had a bit of a faff finding departures, but got there eventually and again jumped straight on to a bus to Ayuthia.